The novel's premise--that World War I ended much sooner, thereby avoiding the harsh Versailles Treaty, which thereby avoided the rise of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust--is fated to be only a temporary vision in young Janusz Spiegelman's mind. The world Janusz inhabits is one that might have been, had millions of Jews not perished, one that would have been filled with their progeny. But this world is disappearing; it is daily returning to the grim reality of the Holocaust. Every day in Janusz's life, more of his Jewish co-workers and friends disappear, more Jewish establishments disappear--vanish completely. As we share Janusz's harrowing, surreal experience, we are once more reminded of the vastness of the Holocaust.